Calif. lawsuit targets company that installed turfs at 6 Montgomery Co. schools

Towson University slammed by state auditor over collections, security, and procurement

In a report released today by Maryland state auditors, Towson University officials were criticized for failure to collect bad check payments, highly questionable procurement practices, and poor security in their information systems. The entire report is available at: http://www.ola.state.md.us/Reports/Fiscal%20Compliance/Towson13.pdf

Nashville High School Sues Field Turf, Inc.

FYI:  Montgomery Blair High School's artificial turf field was manufactured and installed at the same time by the same company. 

The City Paper: Father Ryan sues companies over alleged defective synthetic turf on football field

Father Ryan High School filed a lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court last week against the companies hired to install the synthetic turf playing surface for its athletic field that was dedicated in 2009.
According to the suit, Field Turf Inc., the company subcontracted to supply the artificial turf, was receiving complaints from a number of its customers throughout North America during the field construction. Those complaints alleged that the product was defective and that the fibers of the surface were splitting, breaking, fading, thinning and shedding during routine use. 

Two other companies involved in the construction of Father Ryan’s field — Hardaway Construction and Precision Sports Fields — were also named in the suit. 

Father Ryan claims that information was never disclosed during the construction of the field. Two years after the turf was installed, Father Ryan began to notice premature degradation of the field’s fibers.
Upon discovery of the poor conditions of the field surface, Father Ryan informed Field Turf of the situation...

Article continues at this link.

Exclusive: Defective Artificial Turf Field Cost $185,000 to Replace

The Parents' Coalition has learned that when the Towson University artificial turf stadium field needed to be replaced, the manufacturers warranty would only cover replacement of the field with the exact same product.  That meant that Towson University could have obtained a brand new sheet of plastic grass, but the plastic grass would have been the same product that had already failed after only 4.5 years.  If Towson University wanted to replace their failed plastic grass with an allegedly more reliable product, they would have to pay for an "upgrade".

And, pay they did.  Towson University paid to have an "upgraded" plastic grass installed on their stadium field when their first purchase failed.

The "upgraded" replacement field at Towson University cost this public institutuion an additional $185,000.  
An addition of rugby goal posts added another $19,000 the purchase.

Total cost of artificial turf stadium field at Towson University is now $1,010,008.40 to date.

Towson University Purchase Order 2012

2012 Contract and Purchase Order for replacement of Towson University stadium artificial turf.

Towson University Replacement of Stadium Field 2012

$806,008 for Towson U FieldTurf in 2007

The Parents' Coalition has obtained documents from Towson University showing the cost of the 2007 artificial turf purchase by the University for their stadium.  The total cost for that installation was $806,008.40. The purchase orders and details are shown in the documents below.

The Towson University artificial turf stadium field was replaced in 2012 after just 4.5 years of use.  The plastic grass product installed had failed and had to be removed.

Towson University Artificial Turf purchase 2007

Towson U. Artificial Turf Replaced after only 4.5 Years

Towson University put in a FieldTurf artificial turf stadium field in 2007. They are already replacing that field with a new type of FieldTurf artificial turf.

The Parents' Coalition received the following comment on the Towson University replacement project:

The original field still had a full 3 years left on it's warranty and it was installed with the same material in and around the same time that Montgomery County installed its (overpriced) fields.
I wonder how much this public institution paid for this “upgrade”??

Would anyone from Towson University like to weigh in on why the field was replaced so soon, and how much this replacement cost the University?

MCPS says that their artificial turf fields will last 10 years.
MCPS artificial turf fields are from the same product line that was installed at Towson University's stadium.

Towson University's artificial turf stadium field that only lasted 4.5 years was FieldTurf Duraspine. We can confirm that Duraspine is the same FieldTurf product that was installed at Richard Montgomery and Walter Johnson High School stadiums.

143 MCPS teachers complete Towson University graduate courses during fall 2010

$107,250 invoice from Towson University to MCPS